Building Modern Scotland
Subtitle: A Social and Architectural History of the New Towns, 1947 1997
By: Alistair Fair, Lynn Abrams, Kat Breen, Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters and Valerie Wright
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: 2025
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781350401730; 9781350401709; 9781350401716; 9781350401723; 9781350401747
Subjects: New towns; British & Irish history; History of architecture; Scotland
Description: Combining architectural and social history, this open access book tells for the first time the in-depth story of Scotland s new towns.  One of the most significant episodes in modern architectural, urban and social history, Scotland s postwar new towns offered new housing, new ways of life and new jobs. Begun between the late 1940s and the late 1960s, the new towns   East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld, Livingston and Irvine   were a key element of the planned Welfare State, attracting international attention and widespread publicity. These were places of architectural innovation, and economic and social change.  Building Modern Scotland tells a new history of the new towns, combining architectural and social history to illustrate what was planned, what was built, and how these places were experienced by the communities who lived and worked in them. It positions the new towns at the heart of modern Scottish history, showing how they represented an ambition to make a modern, transformed nation. The book surveys each new town s planning and design before turning to key topics such as housing, family life, work and opportunity, and community.   Drawing on archives and oral history, the book will appeal to historians of modern architecture and design as well as readers interested in modern social history. It provides a new account of modern Scotland, its buildings, places and people, and argues that a better understanding of the new towns  history and value should inform present-day decision-making.  The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Notes: Open Access Unrestricted online access

Compliant with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Content is displayed as HTML full text which can easily be resized or read with assistive technology, with mark-up that allows screen readers and keyboard-only users to navigate easily
Table of contents: title: Preface: Note on Authorship About the Authors Acknowledgements  Introduction  Part 1: Architecture 1. East Kilbride 2. Glenrothes 3. Cumbernauld 4. Livingston 5. Irvine  Part 2: Life 6. Homes 7. Families 8. Community 9. Opportunity  Conclusion:  Out of the Ordinary   Interviewees Bibliography of Published Sources